Examples of Suspected Fraud or Fake Emails

[PayPal_Andy]

Hey Everybody!

In an effort to make things easier to find and research, I'm going to consolidate as many threads as possible where we have examples of people trying to defraud hard working sellers (Craigslist emails, 'PayPal' emails asking you to send money outside of PayPal, etc).  This will also be used as a master thread for future posts regarding this same situation.

When you post your examples here, please remember to not include last names or contact information of whoever is sending these emails.  There's no way to confirm if that person has been defrauded as well and the name is being used fraudulently.

Thanks for your cooperation and remember, keep the conversation productive, on task, and above all, keep it clean. I know these things can be difficult and frustrating, but bleep filled posts or posts that look like government redacted files will never benefit anyone. 😄

Andy

[Ady15]

Hey there thanks for the mail, am indeed ok with the price and conditions....Contact via phone would have been the best to talk to you but due to the nature of my work,i am a tool pusher and work with Industrial CNC Tube & Pipe Cutting Machines and we are presently on the rig offshore we do not have access to phone at the moment, I am buying this for my first son who just graduated on top of his class as an Engineer at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique, I want it to be the perfect graduation gift for him and am making it a surprise package hope you understand? Does it have any history I should be aware of? and why are you selling if you don't mind me asking. I don't mind adding an extra R500.00 for you just to take down the posting. I am already in talks with the courier agent company that will handle the pickup and deliver it to my son after the payment has been made. I will process the payment to you now via PayPal hope you understand the nature of my work? i am a very busy person working all day i don't have access to anything at the moment but i have my bank account link up with my PayPal account so I will be paying you through PayPal.Kindly get back to me with your PayPal details (name&email address) so i can proceed with the payment immediately and contact the courier agent who will come for the pick up and deliver it to my son onces you cashed out the money from your account, But If you don't have a PayPal account you can easily set up one just log on to (www.paypal.co.za) and sign up as its very. Regards..

[Seymour-]

It is a scam.

I see several 'red flags' that indicate this is a scam.

-can't use phone. (C'mon... in this day and age?!)

-it's a surprise. (Mmmm, okay, I could buy that)

-Without being asked, offered to pay $500 above the asking price (DING, DING, DING!!! scam)

There is no agent, just a desire to part you from your 'advance fee' to supposedly get the rest of your money or it is simply an attempt to obtain whatever you're selling for free. If you continue the transaction, the next step is they will send you an a possibly authentic-looking PayPal invoice for the purchase amount PLUS the advance shipping fee for the imaginary agent. Send us the $500 (or whatever the amount may be) to conclude the transaction and release the FAKE funds into your PP acct. The FAKE funds will not be released to you until you pay the advance scam fee. Decline at this point and the threats will start. They'll threaten to call everyone from the Interpol, the FBI, to the CIA, even your mother. Ignore them all. They are hollow threats.

None of the agencies they threaten to inform would bother themselves with anything like this (too small of an amount). There are other investigative services that PayPal has in place to investigate complaints.  By threatening you with informing these Agencies, they're just trying to get you to panic and pay.

[Rochell]

I had a colin wanting to buy my car. But first wanted me to pay $1850 to his agent then would give me the funds back once i sent proof i had paid.

[Seymour-]

same scam, different name, different amount. 

Any asking for an advance fee is usually a scam.

He just wants your $1,850. (if he can dupe 5 unsuspecting people, that's over $9K!)

If you sent him any money, the excuses would start (as to why you have to send more money) to complete the transaction. I've seen it thousands of times.

[Naksitrallid]

Received an email from adxxxxxxx@myaxxxxnt.com with the message:

8/19/2015 5:56:57 we had trouble confirming your PayPal Business Debit MasterCard information on your last transaction. Until this issue is resolved, you'll be able to log in to your account but you might not be able to add money to it or use some of your account features. To restore your account, visit the (DONT CLICK ON THE LINK)---- Resolution Center and complete the "Steps to Remove Limitations". We apologize for any inconvenience. PayPal.

Stupidly opened "resolution link", was transferred to the webpage which obviously fetches your password and card data. As I hadnt owned or ordered a businesscard from paypal, I became suspicious.

Probably a good idea to first login to your paypal account if you receive any seemingly "we have a problem with your account" emails.

According to whois the webpage is registered in ukraine (Kharkov) and has the following contacts: Registrant Email: Email Masxxxx Ixxxx@ gmail.com Admin Name: Sxx 888888888 Admin Organization: Sxx 888888888 Admin Street: Khxxxx Admin City: Khxxxxx Admin State/Province: Admin Postal Code: 61070 Admin Country: UA Admin Phone: Admin Phone Ext: STAY SAFE!

[bryanduane]

Andy- for CRYINOUTLOUD  cant multi B$ PP use some kina verification tag in its emails ???  ....bryan

[rpellet143]

I recieved a few suspicious replies immediately after I posted an ad on Kijiji. I knew after recieving this email that it was a scam.

"Hey there thanks for the mail, am indeed ok with the price and
conditions....Contact via phone would have been the best to talk to
you but due to the nature of my work, i am a tool pusher and work with
Canadian International Oil Corp (CIOC) and we are presently on the rig
offshore we do not have access to phone at the moment,

Does it have any history I should be aware of? and why are you
selling if you don't mind my asking. I don't mind adding an extra
$300.00 for you just to take down the posting. am already in talks
with the courier agent company that will handle the pickup and deliver
it to my place after the payment has been made.

I will process the payment to you now via PayPal hope you
understand the nature of my work? i am a very busy person working all
day i don't have access to anything at the moment but i have my bank
account link up with my PayPal account so I will be paying you through
PayPal.Kindly get back to me with your PayPal details (name&email
address) so i can proceed with the payment immediately and contact the
courier agent who will come for the pick up and deliver it to my place
once you cashed out the money from your account, But If you don't have
a PayPal account you can easily set up one just log on to
 and sign up as its very easy.


Regards"

[Seymour-]

This is, as you suspected, a total scam.

No access to a telephone but, access to his bank account & Paypal?! C'mon now... lol. In this day & age, that doesn't make any sense.

All they want is the fake courier agent fee they're gonna tell you they paid.

[CSLA]

Last week I made a purchase through paypal. I hadn't used paypal to pay for anything for a long while. A day or two later, I got an email from "paypal" with the subject heading: Cancellation request for your account. Of course, I didn't make any such requests so I knew it was fake.  In the email itself, was a link to "confirm" account cancellation.

I know from the message in my dashboard when I signed on that Paypal was compromised not too long ago. Now I wonder how secure these sites are. It seems like these entities are still inside Paypal's system. I've made other online purchases on other sites and it is only with paypal that I have gotten a phishing email.

[Seymour-]

I'm not quite sure I understand what you are saying.  Are you saying everytime you buy something using PayPal, you get a phishing email shortly afterward?

If so, the way I see it there are 4 possibilities:

1) PayPal's system is compromised.

2) Where you purchased from's systems are compromised.

3) Coincidence. (I get 10-40 scams, of ALL varietys EVERY day!) It depends on how 'out there' your email is. Mine's out there. 🙂 

4) Your system is compromised. (not likely but, possible).

Where did these emails come from? was it the same source?